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Greece
Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα, '' Elláda'' eˈlaða), officially the Second Hellenic Republic, 'or the '''Hellenic Republic '(Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellinikí Dimokratía ðimokraˈti.a), historically also known as '''Hellas (Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellás heˈlas), is a country located in Southern Europe, with a population of approximately 6.2 million as of 1928. Moments before the Great War Amidst general dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, a group of military officers organized a coup in August 1909 and shortly thereafter called to power Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos. After winning two elections and becoming Prime Minister, Venizelos initiated wide-ranging fiscal, social, and constitutional reforms, reorganized the military, made Greece a member of the Balkan League, and led the country through the Balkan Wars. By 1913, Greece's territory and population had almost doubled, annexing Crete, Epirus, and Macedonia. In the following years, the struggle between King Constantine I and Venizelos over the country's foreign policy on the eve of World War I dominated the country's political scene, and divided the country into two opposing groups. In August 1916, Venizelist officials staged a coup d'état that prompted Venizelos to leave Athens. He returned in October 1916 and set up a rival government in Thessaloniki, the so-called Provisional Government of National Defence. Entente and Venizelist efforts to persuade the official royal government in Athens to abandon its neutrality and join them failed, and relations irreparably broke down during the Noemvriana, when Entente and Venizelist troops clashed with royalists in the streets of the Greek capital. The royalist officers of the Hellenic Army were cashiered, and troops were conscripted to fight under Venizelist officers, as was the case with the Royal Hellenic Navy. Still, King Constantine, who enjoyed the protection of the Russian Tsar as a relative and fellow monarch, could not be removed until after the February Revolution in Russia removed the Russian monarchy from the picture. In June 1917, King Constantine abdicated from the throne, and his second son, Alexander, attempted to assume the throne as king, only to be stopped by Venizelist officers. This outrages almost the entirety of the Conservatives in Greece, and absolutely enraged the remaining Royalists. With the age of the Monarchy ended, joining the war was as simple as setting up the Second Republic. Venizelos assumed control of the entire country, while royalists and other political opponents of Venizelos were exiled, found and imprisoned, or went into hiding. Greece, by now united under a single government, officially declared war against the Central Powers on 28 June 1917 and would eventually raise around thirteen divisions for the Entente effort, alongside the Royal Hellenic Navy. During the Great War The war started slow with the entire re-haul of the country., but the Macedonian Front stayed mostly stable throughout the war. In May 1918, Greek forces attacked Bulgarian forces and defeated them at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen on 30 May 1918. Later in 1918, the Allied forces drove their offensive from Greece into occupied Serbia. In September of that year, Allied forces (French, Greek, Serb, Italian, and British troops), under the command of French General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, broke through German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces along the Macedonian front. Bulgaria later signed the Armistice of Salonica with the Allies in Thessaloniki on 29 September 1918. By October, the Allies including the Greeks under French General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey had taken back all of Serbia and were ready to invade Hungary until the Hungarian authorities offered surrender. The Greek military suffered an estimated 5,000 deaths from their nine divisions that participated in the war. Aftermath of the Great War After the war and the subsequent Turkish Nationalist Revolt on 19 May 1919, which lasted until 21 November 1920 (1 year, 6 months and 2 days), Greece gained Edirne soon after and a plebiscite was to be held in Izmir in fifteen years. Over eleven years later, on December 25th, 1930, the plebiscite mandated by the Treaty of Ankara was held early, and in Izmir it turned out to be an overwhelming result in favor of annexation by Greece. This result was explained by the Greek government with the fact that many Christians, along with the majority of the Greek diaspora in the rest of Anatolia, had fled to Izmir after the Kemalist Revolt. This was mainly to reap the increased benefits provided to Christians in the autonomous zone, but also was a result of discrimination and repression from both the Ottomans and the Kemalists. The result of this plebiscite was finalized six days later despite skepticism from the Ottoman government and the local Turkish population. Skeptics from Germany, Russia, and the Ottomans still say this was a rigged plebiscite by the Second Hellenic Republic. Breaking parts of the Treaty of Ankara by covertly placing Greek troops in the mountains, hills, and forests of Edirne, Greece set to re-militarizing. The army expanded two-fold, and royalists began to fill the ranks alongside Venizelists, unbeknownst to Venizelos. But now after gaining so much land, Nationalistic fervor throughout the country has skyrocketed. Calls for all Greeks to be re-united echoes down the streets of Athens, and many wish for a return to older times. Venizelos has lost popularity due to his rival, Panagis Tsaldaris, gaining popularity with the idea of the return of King George II of House Glucksburg, or possibly a search for another member of former Hellenic royalty.. an Emperor. The Republic stands at a crossroads; will the Republic survive under Venizelos, or will the Monarchy return? The next few years will come to show the fate of this struggling nation. Category:Countries Category:Republics Category:Capitalist States